She wasn't there the next day.

After class, instead of seeing Emi, you saw Rage talking to one of the students. You asked him why he was there.

"Oh, I was just getting notes from this guy," he answered. "Emi says he's a good notetaker so she asked him to copy some for her." He sighed. "She's still down about her friend. I told her not to even come today and I'd take care of this school crap. I'll be hanging out with her today." He waved casually. "Seeya later."

You nodded your goodbye to him.

Without much to do, seeing as you hadn't yet established much of a bond with the other dancers, you simply went to your dorm.

Robert was there, reading a book.

"Hey there, Souji," he greeted. "The other two are out playing sports or something. It's pretty good weather, but I'm not a fan of the outdoors. What about you?"

You shrugged. You asked what he was reading.

"Oh, this is just an economics textbook. Right now we're studying the basics of..." you tried to listen, and while you did nod your head at the end of every sentence or two, you weren't completely sure what in the world he was talking about.

He must've realized he was rambling, because he stopped. "Anyway, what do you have planned for today? Not gonna hang out with your other friends?"

You told him about how Rage was helping Emi take care of her homework.

"I see," he noted, turning back to his book. "He seems like a good guy, even though you just met him."

The mood got awkward. You did your homework for the remainder of the night and pondered getting a part time job to pass the time some day...

On Friday, you found your way back to the arcade. You were delighted to see Emi there again, with Rage at her side.

Emi smiled at the sight of you as well. "I'm glad you came back, Souji," she said. "I'm sorry I haven't been in class lately..."

You told her not to worry about it... it was kind of a drag, anyway.

"C'mon Emi," he said, "just pound some arrows and you'll be feeling better in no time. I'll go up with you."

"That's no fair," a blonde girl butted in. You tried to remember... the curly pigtails, the skirt, the attitude... she must be Yuni. "You've seen her all week and I haven't! Emi, come up with me."

The blue haired girl giggled. "I think I'm gonna have to go with Yuni. Sorry Rage!"

He smiled. "Go, have fun."

The girls skipped up to the machine.

"By the way," Rage started, "thanks a lot for coming back every now and then. Emi's got this thing where she wants to bring everybody together with DDR, and I think you cheered her up a bit."

You sensed his gratitude, and the bond between the two of you became a little stronger.

Akira walked to you two with a bottle of water.

"Here to keep Yuni outta trouble again?" Rage teased, drinking a sports drink.

"What else is new?" he said with sarcasm, though everything that man said just sounded a little formal and intimidating. After he saw you, you both nodded to each other.

"I tried Pluto Relinquish earlier," Rage said.

"How did that work out?" Akira asked, clearly pessimistic.

"Yeah, I got destroyed," he replied. "Got it on the random selection thing, and I really thought I could pass it, but I guess not."

"How many boss songs can you pass, anyway?"

"Uh... well I can do some 15s, but 16s and 17s... well, yeah."

You had no idea what they were talking about, until you remembered the ratings on the DDR machine. They didn't even have to mention the game to understand the subject. You vaguely remembered Pluto as a song on the list, so you assumed this Relinquish was another song, or another version.

The fact that you played level 2s and 3s reminded you that you weren't even aware numbers beyond 10 existed. You felt more out of place with those borderline professionals talking around you.

"You wanna dance next?" Rage offered. "You're new, so you're still in training. It's cool, everybody's always training, whatever their level. The game's no fun if you're perfect at everything." As Emi and Yuni were playing their third song, Rage motioned you to follow, and so you did, taking the left side of the machine.

You remembered again that you lacked the card used to play the game. Rage swiped his twice. "This one's on me," he said, probably unaware you couldn't pay at all. He forced you to play a round of completely random songs that were chosen so fast you didn't really get a good look at them, but they ranged from incredibly easy to incredibly hard. You were surprised that songs could be so difficult on Beginner.

"Rage!" Emi scolded. "Why the heck did you pick Healing D Vision?"

The man panted after the final song. "Huh? Oh, Souji can pass that just fine."

Except you didn't. The arrows at the end were oddly fast at the end (since when did songs surprise people like that?). But your dull E felt all right next to Rage's purple C. As Rage was breathing heavily to your right, you two stepped off the machine and allowed the next people to play.

You remembered Emi mentioning that she would give you her DDR games this week, but you didn't see her carrying anything. Perhaps she forgot what with the events of this week... you decided not to bring it up. You didn't have much of a desire to haul a mat home, anyway...

(Not much to say yet. I don't like making the characters perfect as DDR. If anyone rules, it's Disco but I doubt he'll show up in this fanfic. Anyway, I hope at least one person is still reading this. o_o;)